Realistic Fiction
No Talking by Andrew Clements is a novel about a boy vs. girl competition that goes too far! The main character, Dave, is reading a book about Gandhi and is intrigued by his vow of silences. He wonders if he is capable of doing the same thing. He starts his experiment on his own. After having to cough his way through a book report, he is questioned about his motives by a girl in his class named Lynsey. She thinks that his challenge to remain silent is stupid. The insults lead to the entire grade participating in a vow of silence for 2 whole days. It is the boys vs. the girls in a "no talking" contest. The team with the least amount of words said wins at the end of day 2. The teachers and the administrators are obviously confused and frustrated by what is going on. The teachers learn ways around the students challenge, while the principal tries to shut down the contest altogether. Who would have thought that teachers would complain about having quiet, compliant children?
I would use this book in my classroom as a fun read. We could read this book before/after lunch when we had some free time. I know that the major activity that would come out of reading this book would be that the children would want to try the experiment or "quiet game" themselves. We would set up our own rules and guidelines of how much talking and when talking was acceptable. After doing the experiment, I would have my students compare their experience to that of the children in Clements' book.
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